RICHARD PITTS

Red 9.5ft.x 4ft. x 4ft., powder coated aluminum, 2012

Yellow 9.5ft.x 4ft. x 4ft., powder coated aluminum, 2012

About the Artist

The plasticity of the artist ‘s relationship to the material is an inexhaustible dialogue. It is capable of ever renewing itself.. It is like the elements of high music, crafted and composed until the sound creates a space ever increasing our emotional capacities for feeling the richness of being alive.

We are the eyes and ears of the universe. Through the arts it is up to us to bear witness.

About the Work

Since the 1970s, landscape has served as either framework or subject while the acquisition of meaning has shifted toward the viewer. Richard Pitts continues to explore the various metaphors inherent to the natural environment, suggesting that art is not only bridged with life but is also a product of it. In creating this new series of free-standing, abstract sculptures the artist lends form to the notion of placeless-ness, rendering a series of aesthetic intersections where personal narratives commune with the visual. Intended for both interior and exterior sites, Richard Pitts’ new selection of colorful, metallic objects free up the art experience even further by utilizing the tenets of formalism to touch upon a deeper sense of “being” in the world.

Richard Pitts’ new sculptures are complex in that they symbolize time or, more simply, the thought or feeling of a particular moment. In 2001 Pitts began breaking down the painted figure into a series of panels that fit together in a puzzle-like fashion. This gradual separation of colors appeared five years later in a series of tall totem structures that reflected a variety of juxtaposing colors, patterns and textures, which were separated by a thick, undulating black line, echoing the construct of stained-glass windows. However in giving shape to a series of metaphysical characteristics that are rarely captured within figurative painting, Pitts has moved the idea of sculpture away from its multi-layered, object-based history and toward one’s personal mythology.

by Jill Conner

New York CityApril 2009

Jill Conner is an art critic and curator based in New York City. She is currently the New York Editor for Whitehot Magazine and writes for other publications such as Afterimage, ArtUS and Sculpture.

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